Wednesday, September 4, 2013

Twelve Questions in Genesis

Some Questions about the Creation Story as told in Genesis:

  1. How could there be days before the Sun was made?  (Gen 1:3 vs. Gen 1:14-18)
  2. How could there be plants before there were night and day?  (Gen. 1:11-16)
  3. God made the Sun, the Moon and the Stars but not planets?  Where are the planets?  (Gen 1:14-19)
  4. If God is all-powerful why did he need a day of rest?  (Gen 2:2)
  5. Why aren't microscopic plants and animals mentioned?
  6. Why did God make livestock and then tell Adam & Eve to eat only plants?  (Gen 1:24; Gen 1:29)
  7. Why does Chapter 2 have a different version from Chapter 1?  Were there plants before Man was made or not?  And why was it a problem that there were no crops yet when they already had all they could eat in the Garden?  (Gen 2:5)
  8. If Adam was not alive until God breathed the breath of life into his nostrils, does that mean that a fetus is not alive until it takes its first breath? (Gen 2:7)
  9. If Eve didn't know about good & evil before eating from the tree of good & evil, then how could she be punished for committing evil?  (Gen 3:4)
  10. If God is a spirit, how did Adam & Eve hear him clomping around the Garden of Eden?  (Gen 3:8)
  11. If the serpent was already a serpent, then why did God curse it to crawl on its belly?  Didn't it already do that?  (Gen: 3:14)
  12. If there is only one god, then why did he say, “The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever." (Gen 3:22)



Monday, September 2, 2013

Saturday, August 31, 2013

August 31 Link Round-Up

Kitten in a Cup for to Cheer you Up
The myth of the teenaged temptress.  "It doesn't matter if a young girl is saying yes, it's an adult man's job to say no."  (Blog post in response to the judge who gave a teacher a slap on the wrist in a rape case involving a 14-year-old student who subsequently committed suicide.  The judge basically blamed the victim in his statement)

Employers are not accommodating diverse religions, but evangelicals have no problem expressing themselves at work, unlike others.  Wow.  Surprise.

A new film, God Loves Uganda, documents the rise of evangelical Christianity.

A new book, The Story of the Jews, is really many stories of many Jews, killed during the Middle Ages in Europe for various trumped-up reasons. 

A study of almost 190,000 people shows that religious people are happier when they are poor.  Is it wrong to then have Schadenfreude over the misery that Joel Osteen must be suffering?

Dolphins are dying from a measles-like virus.  Other related viruses have affected dogs and cattle, and vaccines are effective in preventing those diseases.  Vaccinating dolphins could be rather difficult, though!

A shark that walks along the ocean floor has been discovered in Indonesia.  

Another superheavy man-made element makes it onto the Periodic Table.  More for high school students to memorize!

People who watch / listen to conservative media are more likely to distrust science and to deny global warming.  Someone got paid to figure that out!

Book of the week:  Breaking their Will: Shedding Light on Religious Child Maltreatment.   A friend recently read this and said it's chilling.  I'm not sure I have the stomach for it but I'll pass along the info here.

Science video of the week:  Sign the petition to name hurricanes after climate-denying lawmakers:

http://www.upworthy.com/this-is-probably-the-funniest-most-effective-way-to-deal-with-people-who-ignore-science-facts-ever-2


Saturday, August 24, 2013

August 24 Link Round-up

Rationalist assassinated in India. Wow. Just. Wow.

Anti-vaxxer Texas megachurch surprises nobody with measles outbreak.  Another example of child abuse in the name of religion!

Westboro Baptist Church gets another smack-down from another legal venue.  It seems protests at funerals offend just about everybody everywhere.

God tries to smite the creation museum with lightning, misses, only injures one person.

Fundamentalist muslim in Australia says "Kill all Buddhists and Hindus."  Religion of peace.  yeah.

Religion rakes in $82 billion per year.  Well, if tax subsidies count.  I chose the wrong profession!

Video of the Week: Minute Physics on Science, Religion, and the "Big Bang":



Video of the Week 2: 25 Strangest Geological Formations on Earth:

Sunday, August 18, 2013

Jerry Coyne on Beluga Whales in Confinement

My previous post included a link to a recent decision by the NOAA not to grant permission for importation of captured beluga whales.  Although I follow Jerry Coyne's blog, I had forgotten that he had written a touching and passionate blog post about this petition last year:

http://whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com/2012/10/10/beluga-whales-to-be-captured-jailed/

Apparently, this is one instance when the good guys won.  Perhaps the outcry by Coyne and his readers and other humans with compassion for other sentient beings has turned the tide for these animals. I hope sentient sea mammals can continue to do what they do without our interference or capture!

Saturday, August 17, 2013

On the Ethics of Keeping Animals

Note: there will be no link round-up today because a couple of blog posts and news items inspired the following post:

A recent study found that humans have more empathy for beaten puppies than for human crime victims:
Jack Levin  and Arnold Arluke, sociology professors at Northeastern University, used the opinions of 240 men and women, most of whom were white and between the ages of 18-25 (college students), at a large northeastern university (guess which one) who randomly received one of four fictional news articles about; the beating of a one-year-old child, an adult in his thirties, a puppy, or a 6-year-old dog. The stories were identical except for the victim's identify. After reading their story, respondents were asked to rate their feelings of empathy towards the victim.

Survey results showed that abused adult people have it bad in our culture while dogs have it quite good.  Even the difference in empathy for human children versus puppies was statistically non-significant.
Granted, this study was done within just one part of the American public,  but it raises an important question:  Why do humans hold sentient, social animals in captivity despite our sympathy for them?

This month on the Secular Web, there's an article by Richard Schoenig on whether there can be objective ethics without a deity, and he proposes a system of "ethical rationalism."  He deliberately left aside the issue of ethical treatment of animals other than human beings.  I'm going to try to fill in that gap a little.


Schoenig's "system" includes principles that most people would not dispute regarding human-to-human interactions:
  1. The principle of respect for the life of others ...  to respect the integrity of others' lives... also that we must not cause any unwarranted pain or suffering.
  2. The principle of fairness requires that we give others their due...
  3. The principle of truth-telling says that we must not lie, mislead, or withhold the truth when the situation calls for telling the truth.
  4. The principle of respect for legitimate property ...
  5. The principle of self-support ...
  6. The principle of autonomy (for competent people)
  7. The principle of assistance (PA) states that capable people have a moral obligation under certain circumstances to help those in need who cannot help themselves...
He expands on the last point quite a bit, and to me, this one and the first one are the core values that would apply to relationships between humans and other animals.  Schoenig seems uncomfortable with the idea of rendering assistance, and he goes into detail working out his rather libertarian views on helping others.  He quotes the classic "trolley problem," which I think does apply to our treatment of animals.  In the trolley problem, the subject has to choose between diverting a trolley, thus saving five people but sacrificing one, or letting the trolley run its course, guaranteeing the death of the others further away.   Schoenig's response is rather libertarian, in my opinion, and his calculations lack the one factor that I think causes us to worry about these things in the first place:  compassion.

The trolley problem writ large is a perfect metaphor for our struggle with issues of animal ethics.  For example:

  • Should we prohibit the killing of lions in the savannah because they are endangered, even if it means the lions will eat the villagers' goats and cause them to starve?  Or to Americanize it, should we prohibit the killing of the grey wolf even by farmers who are protecting their livestock?
  • Do we protect the snail darter, a tiny fish from Tennessee Valley Authority's planned dam, which would disrupt its life cycle and destroy its habitat? (The Supreme Court decided in favor of the dam, but the fish were relocated to a different river and it is still a threatened species)
  • Should billions of acres be devoted to corn for animal feed when deforestation is one of the causes of global warming?  If we didn't eat pigs and cows many of those acres could be returned to their native state.
  • Is the human-animal bond sufficient to justify keeping parrots as pets?
  • Should food animals be raised with modern methods to maximize their potential to feed more people?
  • Should we allow the human population to continue to grow, considering how many species we are endangering?
  • Should exurbia continue to sprawl into native habitats when inner cities have vacant housing that could be restored?

Religion isn't very helpful here.  Buddhists revere all life, are strict vegetarians, and literally will not hurt a fly.  On the other extreme are cultures that have no regard for animal life whatever, and engage in what many Americans would consider atrocities.  And then American animal treatment has a long way to go.  In each of the above examples, animals are on the losing end because we consider our needs and comfort to be more important than theirs.

At the risk of sounding post-modern, the less we relate to another, the easier it is to disregard the "other."  The United States no longer has any states where African-Americans are considered 3/5 human, or where women are prohibited from owning property, but current political debate continues to involve the resistance of the "sames" to the "others:"   gays, immigrants, Muslims, etc.  (No debate about whether it's okay to hate atheists, yet, though)

More and more, though, we are accepting that we are not quite as unique as we would like to feel.  We are not the only species to adopt orphans.  We are not the only species to show grief at the death of a family member.  Other species have been found to use tools and to have language-like abilities.  Here are some recent news items about other animals:
As biologists continue to find commonalities with other animals, our biggest uniqueness seems to be the ability to make or break the existence of other species.   Protection of species and the environment have succeeded in part because of enlightened self-interest:  If we continue to  decimate the Brazilian rain forest we might cause the extinction of a plant that could cure cancer!  If we kill too many deer this year, there won't be enough next year for us to hunt!   We love to visit redwood forests, so lets keep some of them for our amusement!
 
So back to Schoenig.  His Number One rational value is: The principle of respect for the life of others ...  to respect the integrity of others' lives... also that we must not cause any unwarranted pain or suffering.  This stands alone, without respect to our own amusement or comfort.  I can't kill someone to harvest their kidney for myself, nor can I torture him for sport.

Now let's widen the circle a little - to some of the more closely-related "others."  In the 1970s and 1980s, young baboons were sacrificed for their hearts, which were transplanted into infants that died soon after.  The most famous was "Baby Fae."  How did the baboon's mother feel about this?   Nobody thought of that in the 1980s.  Studies of baboon social life indicate that females bond very closely to their female relatives.  ... and they love their offspring.  Yes, love. Parental love is due at least in part to the hormone, oxytocin, which is present in almost all placental mammals.  Let's decide to stop killing primates to harvest their organs, okay?

But what if you could save ten babies named Fae with one baboon heart?  That's the trolley problem.  Fortunately, as in the case of the snail darter, the trolley problem may have been a false dilemma.  (The ethics of keeping doomed babies "alive" is another topic for another day)

"Unwarranted" pain or suffering is the razor's edge, though.  If we hold a human baby's life in higher regard than a baboon's, then the baboon's suffering is justified.  But what if the human benefit is not life-or-death?  And what if the human's chance of survival are not greatly improved by the baboon's sacrifice?  Animal activists have been arguing against unwarranted animal destruction and have been successful in a number of areas:
What got me thinking about ethics and animals was a recent news item in which the U.S. government denied a petition to import beluga whales for public display.  Belugas, like other whales, live in pods.  Separating the individuals from their pods is cruel, and if the recent dolphin study is indicative of cetaceans (marine mammals) in general, they would recognize their pod if reunited.

The debate whether zoos are important has good points on both sides, but as much as I enjoy zoos, I'm starting to view them as being on the wrong side of history.  In the past, we had traveling circuses where people viewed animal tricks, and in general gawked at alien animals.  Then we had Sea World and Siegfried und Roy in stable locations coaching animals to do tricks.

Zoos and Sea World are becoming more humane, though, and nobody wants to follow in Siegried and Roy's dubious footsteps.  Habitat areas in zoos are more similar to the natural habitat, and keepers give the animals stimulating activities.  Sadly, though, too many social animals are still alone in their enclosures, or one of only a few when in the wild they would live in an extended family.  Even if they embrace their keepers in a human-animal bond, it's not the same.  An example is Lucy, an Asian elephant living in the cold climate of Canada, without any other elephants to socialize with.  The zoo claims she's happy.

The educational value of captive enclosures is perhaps the best argument for keeping zoos and aquaria, though I think they could still expand environments.  And we have to admit -- if we're being honest -- cute, beautiful, human-like, or scary animals are still the real attractions.  Would Sea World want those Beluga whales if they didn't look a bit like Homer Simpson?


Land animals can be "preserved" in sanctuaries or wildlife reserves, but preservation of sea animals is more of a challenge.  Their natural range is much further than land mammals, so even turning the Grand Canyon into a sea would not be enough space.

The best argument for zoos and aquaria in my opinion is the advancement of veterinary science for those animals.  We can help injured animals now, and we often do.  If the same could be accomplished by sanctuaries that would be even better.

There are sanctuaries for African animals in the United States, which is rather disturbing.  Many of the animals came from the exotic pet trade, as owners realize their cute little lion cub is not quite as cute as an adult.  A "sanctuary" implies there would be no other option for the animal, and they will be in safe keeping.  But it's still keeping.

Why do we keep animals, either in zoos or as pets?  The animals sometimes suffer terribly.  Parrots pull out their feathers.  Large mammals in small enclosures pace in circles.  Big cats attack zoo employees at their first opportunity.  I think it's because we like them and feel some empathy for them.  Only recently have we become sensitized to their suffering in captivity.

So how do we define our ethical responsibility toward other animals?  Studies of animal behavior can help us define what constitutes suffering for them, not in comparison to our suffering.  I think it comes down to the brain development of the species, and their instinctual needs.  We can assume that all animals with brains can experience pain.  I admit to a need to eat meat, so I can't go the distance to encourage vegetarianism, but farming methods and slaughter methods can be made less painful.

Social animals with brains capable of social bonding should not be separated from their family groups.  This would include other primates, elephants, giraffes, and other zoo staples. If zoos are to continue, they should create social groups and provide sufficient space to support the entire group.  With the advent of webcams, visitors can be shown video images of the animals wherever they happen to be within their space rather than forcing them into small pens.

Aquaria and Sea World shouldn't keep dolphins or whales unless they can give them large spaces to swim.  Animal tricks would not be possible without some kind of human-animal bonding, and I don't dismiss this possibility.  There are many instances in nature when an animal fosters the young of a different species.  But when you consider the large ranges of dolphins and whales, is the distraction of tricks for treats sufficient to make up for what they've lost?

India has banned the keeping of captive dolphins and Costa Rica closed its zoos.  Will Sea World and your local zoo go the way of the circus?

Animals that need to learn their survival behaviors from a family group, are kind of stuck, and they are our responsibility if we have reared them.  This brings us to the libertarian #7 of Schoenig's system: fostering an unhealthy dependence.  When it comes to humans, I don't think this is really that much of a risk.  When it comes to intelligent and social animals, it is definitely a risk. There are many of these.  We habitually rescue animals that need to learn life skills that we can't possibly teach them.  An example is a walrus that is now at the Indianapolis zoo.   Humans and other sentient animals can bond, but should they, erm, we?



Unfortunately, due to our ability to destroy the planet through deforestation, pollution, overpopulation, overfishing, and global warming, all species on the planet are now our responsibility.  They have an unnatural dependence on us whether we have contact with them or not.  In the case of domesticated animals, we created their species so we are 100% responsible for everything related to their suffering and survival.  In the case of endangered species, we have most likely caused their endangered status, so nurturing individuals in rescue/rehabilitation programs is essential.  Preserving the gene pool through zookeeping, maybe not so much.  We should definitely be banking sperm from endangered animals to the extent we can.  We should be saving ecosystems by converting golf courses (yes, golf courses!) and other unnatural spaces back to their original states.

We do indeed have a moral obligation to prevent suffering and care for those animals that depend on us directly or indirectly.


Disclaimer:
Dogs in "captivity" are also our responsibility because we created their species from wolves.  They do not have the jaw strength to hunt like wolves, and they are juvenile temperaments have been bred into them, so they can't mimic wolf packs as much as people would like to think.  Dogs can revert to "wild" but even in undeveloped areas of the world, they are rather parasitic and seemingly unable to survive away from human settlements.  Mine are happy when I come home and they sleep with me.  Would they prefer to chase squirrels all day?  Possibly.  But they were bred to be companions of humans.

So I'm keeping them.

Thursday, August 15, 2013

More Child Abuse in the Name of Religion

In the local paper today, a Christian couple that starved their children after leaving Muncie to join some cult in Branson, Missouri, are being held to account:

http://www.thestarpress.com/article/20130815/NEWS01/308150037/child-neglect

According to documents at the time of their arrest, Jason and Amy Doty told police they had moved to Branson, Mo., in March 2012 “to follow a church ministry there.” While there, the family ran through its savings; the parents acknowledged they would go without feeding the children for two to four days at a time, and had noticed them losing weight but did not seek assistance or medical attention until they returned to Muncie, just days before their arrest.

...The younger girl, who was taken to Riley Hospital for Children for severe malnutrition in June 2012, had stopped walking by the time she was hospitalized, according to police at the time. She eventually learned to crawl and then walk again, but suffered irreversible brain damage as a result of malnutrition, Whitehead reported.Both girls lost much of their hair, had seriously compromised immune systems and had physical problems as a result of poor hygiene. Both still suffer from nightmares and have trouble eating, being prone to “gag and puke” regularly at the table during meals, the aunt said.
But... seven years is the sentence.  Seven years?  They should stay in jail until the children are 18 at least.   And these idiots want to gain custody of the children.  Fortunately, an aunt has taken them in and cared for them and wants to adopt them.

An Arizona couple went even further, geographically at least.  They left the country in a boat -- with their toddler and newborn -- to escape supposed religious persecution in the U.S.  The Young Turks got it right:  God didn't help them navigate, so the couple got lost, then "miraculously" rescued, and they wound up in Chile, where abortion is illegal.  So perhaps God wanted them to be in Chile.... but no, now they're going back to the U.S., paid for by the State Department.

Saturday, August 10, 2013

August 10 Link Round-up


Baptist pastor expelled from church for attending Rick Ross ("God Forgives, I Don't") concert.  Oh the irony.

The Slate reports on the sexual harrassment problem in secularism.

Crazy Christian in Washington (state) blows up the family dog because it had demons.

Two British teens visiting Zanzibar are the victims of an acid-throwing attack.... because they sang during Ramadan.  Seriously?  Singing?

Conservatives don't care about the consequences of their "morality."  Someone got paid to study that.  I picked the wrong career!

Teens exploited by churches around the country to demand a ridiculous exhibit comparing abortion to the Holocaust.  Even sadder, they're probably aware of being used and proud of it.

Former  basketball coach converts to Islam, goes off the rails, threatens Mormons & Catholics, and gets arrested for pot possession.  Yes, this is the real reason pot is illegal: to get people you don't like off the streets.

Link round-up at a blog I've recently started following, "No Longer Quivering"  Great links, great blog.

Atheism is considered a suicide risk by the military.

Clashes between Hindus and moslems in Kashmir, the only Islamic-majority part of India.

Salon says it misses Hitch more than ever since a video of Kissinger dancing with Colbert goes viral.  (with video interview of Hitch from 2001)

A humanist chaplain at Harvard explains why a humanist/atheist chaplain would be a good idea in the military.

The Barking Atheist challenges Rep. Michael Burgess on his vote to deny atheist chaplains in the military.  Check out the Barking Athiest's blog, too.  His video of this event is the video of the week, below:



Saturday, August 3, 2013

August 3 Link round-up

The big news this week is that Ball State University's president made an unequivocal statement on the non-place of Intelligent Design in science education.

Blog posts of interest, mainly for the comments!

The local paper's comment section continues to be trolled by creationists and idiots:
For comparison, the Huffpo piece has 944 shares, and the latest local story about Ball State being a good deal for the money has zero Facebook shares so far.  So apparently people are paying attention.  I wonder how many re-shares these stories have gotten.


Video of the Week, Saul Becomes a Christian (Atheist Bible Study):
He had to do a second take, which means he was even drunker than usual while reading the Children's Bible. I literally laughed out loud in the middle of this one! My brain says "hey, he's really not that funny" but then I laughed anyway (especially after about 5:20).

Wednesday, July 31, 2013

Ball State President's Statement on Intelligent Design

President Jo Ann Gora declared Intelligent Design is not a science and does not belong in a science classroom.  She said it belongs in social science or humanities courses, but only if it is presented in the context of other 'theories' of similar ilk.

You can read the entire statement at Jerry Coyne's blog or the local newspaper.  Additional information about Hedin's course is vaguely hinted, but apparently he's been "cooperative" in working with the higher-ups on the issue.

The local student paper covered the story more briefly, and quotes FFRF attorney Andrew Seidel.

This is great news, assuming she really means it.


Monday, July 29, 2013

Homeschoolers and Quiverfull Families

This week's Washington Post has an article about a young man who has struggled to rectify the deficiencies in his homeschooling education:

Josh Powell wanted to go to school so badly that he pleaded with local officials to let him enroll. He didn’t know exactly what students were learning at Buckingham County High School, in rural central Virginia, but he had the sense that he was missing something fundamental.

By the time he was 16, he had never written an essay. He didn’t know South Africa was a country. He couldn’t solve basic algebra problems.
The local school system wouldn't go against his parents' wishes when he decided he wanted to enroll in public school.  He left his family, and with the help of a friend was able to attend community college.  From there, he enrolled in Georgetown University -- no small feat for a community college transfer student.  (Not to mention, it's a Catholic university, which has to rankle his Pentecostal parenst!)

Now he's trying to help his eleven younger siblings get a real  education.  His parents may have meant well, but they have no credentials for teaching any subject other than farming and homemaking, and teaching all grade levels at once will inevitably result in what happened to this family -- the competing interests of all the children resulted in none of having their needs met.

As you read through the article you realize there's an essential issue being ignored: the rights of the children to have a say in their education (not to mention their right to have an education).  This boy should have been able to enroll in school, and so should his siblings if they wish.

So ... how could that happen?  The article talks about education standards, but I think this is an issue of child neglect.  If a child is enrolled in public school and never shows up, the parent will be investigated by Child Protective Services.  Where is CPS when children are forced into these incompetent family schools?

Both the older and the younger children need protection from these delusional parents.  When there are twelve children in a family, if there are only two actual adults in the home, the oldest kids' needs will be put to the side as they are forced to help out with the younger ones.  And the younger ones who get this help, are they better off?  Maybe.  Maybe not.  Depends on the older kid who gets assigned to them.


The article doesn't mention the Quiverfull movement but this family sure smells like a Quiverfull family.  They are a fundmentalist family with an excessive number of children, and they homeschool.  The mother refused to comment and let her husband do the talking for the article.  That's because her role is that of a brood mare, not an actual human being with thoughts and ideas.  The only good side of the quiverfull movement is that it's creating a whole generation of children who will grow up learning how totally insane and destructive their religion is. ... assuming their mother isn't the next Andrea Yates.

Friday, July 26, 2013

July 27 Links

Dogs' memories are as good as human's. Their "declarative memory" is, anyway.

Federal judge blocks unconstitutional North Dakota abortion bill.

Hijab tourism pisses off women who are forced to wear it, or choose to, or whatever.  Sheesh.  How could learning what life is like for other people first-hand be a bad thing?

I can't wait to hear how authentic rednecks feel about this example of gun tourism.

Wanted: Young Creation "Scientists"  Apparently recruiting believers to science is as difficult as getting scientists to be liars for Jesus.

Scientist fights back against climate deniers who accuse him of fudging the data.

Rush Limbaugh is now a right-wing welfare bum.  He & Sean Hannity take payola to talk up conservative organizations.

Mormons are ending door-to-door missionary practice.  ... in part because people answer the door with firearms!

Here's a contest winner for ya:  Smallest Penis in Brooklyn! (photos tastefully edited)

Mind-raped by the Christian right!  An alcoholism program is a lure for a fundy cult.

North Dakota anti-abortion nutters put creepy fetus dolls into candy bags for children at parade!

The North Pole has melted.  Here it is, frame by pitiful frame.  (Snopes is currently trying to verify it)

The Atlantic goes after Food Nazis.  (found via Weird Things)

Video of the Week:  The Young Turks (TYT) ask "Is the Internet Destroying the Mormonism?"





Saturday, July 20, 2013

July 20 Link Roundup

Zoom from theoretical subatomic particles to the observable universe at this cool site.

Lewis Black tells Rick Perry, Don't Fuck with New York!

The Atheism sub-reddit of Reddit got booted off the main page.

I wonder if Paula Deen has seen this parody of her portrayed by a black woman.  It's hilarious.

The ACLU sent Frankfort, KY a letter threatening a lawsuit if they permitted Gideon Bibles to be distributed in schools.   A religious "freedom" organization counter-lettered.

In Pakistan, 717 people were killed in religious violence last year.  (This doesn't count people killed in drone strikes ordered by Americans who think God blesses the country)  Most were Shia muslims.

The most controversial topics on Wikipedia, i.e. the 'edit wars' are about religion.  

England's supreme court is pondering whether Scientology wedding ceremonies are "religious."

Video of the Week: Kids React to Controversial Cheerios Commercial
After all the coverage of the Zimmerman trial, this video is a welcome change:



Thursday, July 18, 2013

The Real Reason why Zimmerman Shouldn't have Followed Martin

In all the hubbub over the Zimmerman/Martin case, one fact stands out to me, and I found some confirmation of it in the New York Times:

There is less violent crime when it is raining. (at least fewer murders in New York)

Bad guys are just like the rest of us.  Actually until they do something bad, they are the rest of us!  They don't like rain, cold, or snow.  Just like us, they would rather be inside watching television on a rainy night than walking around outdoors.  Just like us, they'll postpone an errand if the weather sucks.  We just go to the Seven-Eleven for different errands.

Of course, it's possible Trayvon Martin really was scoping out the neighborhood to plan his next burglary... and it's possible that his jones for sweets was so strong he decided to walk to the store in the rain.  If Zimmerman had been rational and well-trained, he'd have known better than to worry about the kid being up to something.  His only assumption would be that the kid doesn't have a car, which may be unusual but it's not criminal.

As for what happened after Zimmerman made his decision to follow Martin, I'm not upset with the jury because juries match up evidence to their jury instructions.  If there's no match, they are required to make a finding of not guilty.  In the United Kingdom, the jury would say "not proved," which I prefer.  In the sequence of events, there would have to be a line crossed from "stupid" to "illegal" for a guilty verdict.  I listened to quite a bit of the trial, and I can understand the jury not being sure beyond a reasonable doubt about that.  If you follow someone and they turn around and punch you in the nose, you had it coming in a moral sense but not necessarily according to the law.  Sometimes the law and our sense of morality don't match up.  (When it comes to Wall Street it's more like all the time)

What I am upset with are irrational reactions to this whole incident and trial.  One of my Facebook friends demanded the rest of us defriend her if we weren't outraged.  My feelings about it aren't really that strong because I'm a grown-up and I understand that sometimes things don't go the way I'd want or expect.  I also don't expect my friends to agree with me 100% of the time.  Heck, I don't agree with me 100% of the time!  I have mixed feelings about this situation as I do with many others.  If I couldn't handle a friend who sometimes disagreed with me I'd have no friends.

My krav maga instructors often reminded us that just because someone doesn't show you a weapon doesn't mean they don't have one.  Martin probably thought that Zimmerman was unarmed.  Zimmerman didn't know whether Martin was armed.  Likewise, the fact that Zimmerman ignored the 911 dispatcher's advice is irrelevant because being a dumbass is not illegal.  Following someone is almost always legal, even though it's creepy.  Following someone because you don't like their look or their race is also not illegal, and it's extremely disturbing.  Being a dumbass will get you a punch in the nose or worse, but it's not illegal.  Another main teaching point of krav maga: don't start a fight, but if someone starts one with you, be sure you are the one who finishes it.  That's not an official stance of KM but that's the basic idea.  Our drills started with someone putting their hands on you or threatening you with a weapon.  Until then, your life is not in danger, and you most likely still have the Nike option.  Neither person took the Nike option in this case.

And a final point I learned in krav maga:  never go to ground if you can help it.  Very very bad things happen once things go to ground and you are much less likely to go home alive.  If you are on the bottom and someone is on top of you, you are in very very deep trouble.  Unlike Zimmerman, I learned a few wrestling moves to get the bad guy off of you.  Even if you know what you're doing, and you know your teacher or classmate won't kill you, and they are not doing something super crazy, it's very very difficult to do but it's possible.

In the law, if you start a fight and you end the fight, you're guilty.  If someone else starts the fight and you end the fight, you're not guilty because of self-defense.  If you start a fight and you're a bad fighter, then you shoot the other person, you're a dumbass and a murderer.  If you piss someone off and they start the fight but then you shoot them, you're a dumbass but not guilty.  The jury's decision was about the end of the chain of events, not the beginning.  If I had a gun and I'd gotten myself into a fight that went to ground and the other person was a better fighter, I'd use that gun even if it meant going to prison.  Once the situation went bad for Zimmerman, he did what anybody, black or white, who had a gun would do.

So like a plane crash, the killing of Trayvon Martin was due to multiple mistakes, miscalculations, and misinformation.  It should never have happened, not because he was unarmed, but because it was raining.  The first tragic mistake was of not crediting bad guys for having the good sense to get out of the rain.  Zimmerman shouldn't have suspected him; he should have offered him a ride or at least asked him if he was okay.


Sunday, July 14, 2013

Pope Francis' Facebook Share

I hope this is from a fake account.  I don't really like the pope but he's surrounded by some of the best art in history and this is what he shares?  Someone please tell me he has better taste than this!



...and what's with the flaming heart?  I don't get that symbolism at all.  I can understand a bleeding heart bleeding blood that turns to water for wildlife but a flaming fauxhawk?  WTF?

Saturday, July 13, 2013

Creation "Evidence" Expo next weekend


Oh Indiana, you do not disappoint.  I tried to explain to my friends and family just how hick this place is but it just defies description sometimes.

Next weekend the local Baptist church that happens to run a Christian school (the area's main one) is hosting a Creation Evidence Expo.  Evidence?  Really?  And this isn't their first one.  I'm starting to get an understanding of the ignorant responses in the local paper to the Ball State ID course.

The description says it all:  "True science supports the biblical account of Creation. Returning to GBC is Dr. Jay Wile who holds a Ph.D. in Nuclear Chemistry from the University of Rochester. He’ll detail the evidence, give his testimony of salvation, and relate his evolution-to-Creation journey."
  
They've invited a whackjob "physicist" and supposedly his "salvation" is relevant to the discussion of creationism.  This guest is Jay Wile, a YEC who writes and self-publishes creationist textbooks.  What the blurb doesn't say is that he doesn't have a university job, or a real job in science at all.  His entire career is devoted to crackpot pseudoscience.   On his site, he unabashedly posts his pathetic c.v.   His only teaching experience at the university level was... guess where?  Ball State University.  Yes, children, it does appear that Ball State is indeed the place to go if you have a Ph.D. and no respect for actual science.  On the other hand, he only lasted three years, then he went on to greener pastures as a computer techie.  Smells like tenure denial to me.

There is a pamphlet/flyer titled 10 questions to ask your biology teacher.  I'd like to riff on it and put out a list of 10 Questions to Ask Your Creationism teacher, then pass it out to attendees at this seminar lie-fest.

Suggestions?

p.s. He weighed in on the Hedin case, too, claiming to have taught "many years" at Ball State.  uhhh no, he taught for three years.  Three are not many.

July 15 Links

If you try to claim a religious exemption from paying taxes, it won't work.  http://religionclause.blogspot.com/2013/07/tax-evader-claiming-religious.html

It's true!  If you pee on the 3rd rail you will be electrocuted.  I heard this when I lived in New York but I always thought it was an urban legend.  Nope, it's true!  (Mythbusters was wrong on this one)

Where can you get good science news nowadays?  The Rolling Stone, of course.  They report on the City of Miami's impending inundation.

Planned Noah's Ark full-sized replica short on cash.   Awwwww  Makes you wonder how Noah was able to afford it.

Actress Leah Remini is leaving the "Church" of Scientology.  It doesn't sound like they've made things easy for her.

ID proponent Gonzalez promises not to infuse his astronomy courses with intelligent design.

Video of the week: Dusty Smith's "Black Christians = Uncle Toms" video took a lot of heat around youtube, Facebook, and wherever people can vent. This sentiment has been the source of some conversions to Islam, so I don't know why this video was such a big deal. Decide for yourself:

Monday, July 8, 2013

Pathways to Atheism

Atheists are a diverse bunch.  We really only agree on one thing, which is agreement on a non-thing.  In every other way we won't necessarily agree.  Likewise, we come to our non-position from many directions.  Social pressure to believe in the prevailing religion is so strong that for most of us deconversion is a gradual and personal process.

Family ties:  some of us had the good fortune to grow up in freethinking homes.  As religion is ubiquitous in society (currently), this is the best way, because children will have the option to convert if they want but won't feel they'll go to hell if they do.

Skepticism:  this was my pathway.  After developing critical thinking towards New Age nonsense, I realized the religion of my childhood was no more believable than homeopathy or alien abduction stories.  Some people are just naturally more skeptical, and I think I was as a child but social pressure to believe was so intense I went along with it.  I just didn't think too hard about the blood of Christ or the hallucinations in the Bible.

Reading the Bible:  The more you know the Bible and the more you know about it, the more you see its problems.  This is why churches have "Bible Study" and selected brief readings during services: if you read it without "guidance" you would reject it.  This is also why so many pastors have become atheists.

Seeking:  Before I discovered skeptical thinking, I was a "seeker."  I investigated the world's religions, and read some of their holy books.  The only one that appealed to me was the Tao Te Ching, which is not very supernatural or personal.  I had also taken two Anthropology courses in college, which put the culture I live in into perspective. I've known others who have looked into other religions, too.  I suppose some seekers settle on one religion as being "true" but the conclusion I came to is that they're all based on folk tales.

Meeting an atheist:  If you've never known an open atheist, it may not even seem like a viable option for you.  Even worse, churches teach falsehoods about atheists (aside from the Hell-threat).  At the time I fully embraced non-embracing of religion, I had only met two "out" atheists in my entire life, and I was about 28 at the time!  I'd known a few wishy-washy deists and some befuddled agnostics, but only two people had told me they just didn't believe in any god.  Meeting one atheist could be all it takes to self-identify when you realize your disbelief is not so unique.

Science (?):  I wonder how many scientists become atheists after starting their careers.  Richard Dawkins deconverted long before he chose his career path.  I'm not familiar with enough others to know if this is common.  It would certainly be difficult to reconcile astronomy or evolution with the stories of the Bible, but there are many scientists who are believers.  The power of rationalization keeps many believers in the pews.

Here are some ways we typically don't become atheists:

Anger toward God:  If a Christian's prayers are not answered, or something unexpected happens, they may feel some anger toward God, but self-blame is so hard-wired into the theology that the typical Christian turns that anger towards themselves.  They will decide they didn't pray for the right things, or that they are too ignorant to know what's best.  They soothe themselves with trite consolations:  "In the end, it's God's will."  "He needed another angel in Heaven."  "One door closes, and then another opens."  If you don't believe in any god, it's impossible to become angry with one.

Bitterness:  We aren't bitter about life, though we are sometimes bitter and angry about being fooled by religion.  People who have been in cults may feel they were robbed of life experiences during that time, and who could blame them?  But that won't turn someone against God.  People who are angry with one religion or bitter about the way they were treated by their church will find another religion, denomination, or parish if they feel put-out but still believe.

Disillusionment with church leaders:   The Catholic church's pedophilia problem is just one of many problems endemic to a group of people with virtually unlimited power over another group of people.  Mega-church leaders and televangelists have been caught with their pants down in sex scandals, too.  I have known a lot of Christians who are forgiving toward these "fallen" leaders, or at least rationalize their behavior as being individual weaknesses rather than an indictment of belief.  One Catholic friend converted to the Greek Orthodox church after the pedophilia charges came out.  Hypocrisy is something the believer can live with.  The only thing they can't live without is belief in a deity.

Sunday, July 7, 2013

Defacing the Gideon Bible

I was on vacation last week, and during some spare time I decided to deface the motel room's Gideon Bible.  I have done this a few times, but this time I consulted The Evil Bible for passages about genocide and slavery.  If I were a better artist, I'd have added some cartoons.






July 6 Links

Ball State hires Guillermo Gonzalez, notorious Intelligent Design "scientist."  Great going, Ball state!

TedMed talk:  could sugar cause insulin-resistance, not obesity?  A scientists is betting his career on a question that challenges conventional medical wisdom.  I love scientists!

Another TedMed talk:  Are zombie doctors taking over America?  Rather utopian goals to fix primary care, but worth a watch.

Cult leader gets life for killing boy he thought was gay & woman who couldn't conceive.

Got rain? This may be why. Jesus & Jesus do the Rain Dance:









Saturday, June 29, 2013

June 29 Links

Former President Jimmy Carter blasts religious leaders for treatment of women and girls.

Anti-Islam American blogger not allowed into Britain.  I have to admit, what she says is more like "hate speech" than anything I've seen on atheist blogs.  Still, you have to wonder about the U.K.'s laws.

Baptists are boycotting the Boy Scouts, thus proving how silly and bigoted they are. Perhaps this is why they have been conducting fewer baptisms.

PBS interviews an author and survivor of the Exodus pray-the-gay-away "ministry."

National Geographic asks, How much do you know about science?

Victor Stenger radio interview, mainly about the history of science, which is apparently the topic of his latest book:  God and the Atom.


Video of the Week "God's Loophole" by Garfunkel & Oates (lyrics NSFW):

Monday, June 24, 2013

John Lennox... who?

I'm continuing to follow the online debate about the Ball State course offered by physicist Eric Hedin (latest update here).  His "honors" course syllabus, and a course in the Astronomy department require a book by John Lennox called God's Undertaker: Has Science Buried God?

It didn't take long to discover (heh) that he is heavily on the side of Godly doings in the design, or creation, or running the universe.  The conservative D.C. rag, the Washington Times, ran an interview with him in 2011: 
http://communities.washingtontimes.com/neighborhood/not-your-average-read/2011/aug/3/john-lennox-peter-singer-stephen-hawking-genesis/

Summary:  This guy shared the stage with Behe and Ross in Alabama, at a conference called In the Beginning.  Blech!  He appeared (briefly) in that Ben Stein movie about the poor downtrodden Christian teachers who promote creationism (Ex-pe-LL-e.d), and he believes in God because he doesn't like the alternative:

“[p]erhaps there is a subtle danger today that, in their desire to eliminate the concept of a Creator completely, some scientists and philosophers have been led, albeit unwittingly, to re-deify the universe by endowing matter and energy with creative powers that they cannot be convincingly shown to possess. Banishing the One Creator God they would then end up with what has been described as the ultimate in polytheism – a universe in which every particle has god-like capacities” (pg. 51).
Excuse me?  The One Creator God?  Who would this be? Yahweh?  Allah?  Zeus?  A really really big turtle?

Oh... there must be something to create something, despite what Hawking and Krauss say:

“Which simply shows – as I said in my book [God and Stephen Hawking: Whose Design is it Anyway?] – that nonsense remains nonsense even if a scientist says it.”

Hawking, who in 2009 retired from holding Isaac Newton’s old chair at Cambridge, also said that heaven is “a fairy story for people afraid of the dark.”

Lennox quipped in response, “Well if you want a one liner to answer it, atheism is a fairy story for people afraid of the light.”
Is this really someone who will give the atheistic viewpoint a fair shake?  Let's take a look at his website:  http://johnlennox.org/

About:  He has written a series of books exploring the relationship between science and Christianity and he has also participated in a number of televised debates with some of the world’s leading atheist thinkers...
i.e., he debates only against atheists because he's a theist.  His website has a section on apologetics
He is a mathematician, not a physicist, biologist, or even a theologian!  His next appearance (in a few hours) will be at the U.K.'s national prayer breakfast, and next month he will be in Ohio at something called Xenos Summer Institute (which promotes "home groups" -- sounds creepy and cultish!)
The debate in the Hedin story involves many threads, but there has been no voice claiming that Hedin is not teaching creationism.  Requiring that students purchase this book is a pretty good sign.

Speaking of debate, check out Lennox debating Dawkins (long):

Saturday, June 22, 2013

June 22 Links

Just a few links, none about the pray-the-gay-away Exodus group closing its doors, though.  You should have heard about that already!

In Oklahoma, a Christian claims that the state's Native-American themed license plate violates the First Amendment.  Really?  A Native American Methodist begs to differ.  Interesting case.

Huffpo reports on Christian wife-spanking.  Sadly, Christians are not innovative enough to be kinky.  This is treating a wife like a child.  Barbaric

Christians vs Atheists in charity volleyball!

An Indiana Methodist church kicks out boy scouts because of the new stance on homosexuality.  Really?  So why was John the "disciple whom Jesus loved?"

Gene Roddenberry will get his wish to have his ashes go to space

Video of the week:

Russell Brand on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" show, teaching the experts a few lessons:

Monday, June 17, 2013

Why this blog has no advertising

At one point I decided to make a few pennies off this blog, especially considering the number of libertarians who land on my doorstep due to someone linking it on a libertarian Facebook page.  I'd love to make money off of them!

But I made the mistake of reading the terms of service.  You have to promise not to do anything that could be construed as hate speech.  Now, I don't consider what I do to be hate speech, but someone else might. Here is google's definition for youtube:

Hateful Content is videos, comments or channel information which contain "Hate Speech". "Hate speech" refers to content that promotes hatred against members of a protected group. Protected groups include, but are not limited to, race or ethnic origin, religion, disability, gender, age, veteran status, and sexual orientation/gender identity.

Sometimes there is a fine line between what is and what is not considered hate speech. For instance, it is generally okay to criticize a nation, but not okay to make insulting generalizations about people of a particular nationality.
I don't hate Christians, really.  Some of my best friends are Christians... really! I don't promote hatred toward them, or most believers, though I'm annoyed with the more reasonable ones for not speaking up against the dangerous ones more publicly.  As for the dangerous ones, is it hate speech to say I hate the child abusers I've written about on this blog?  They are a protected group by virtue of their religion, but shouldn't butt-fucking priests, faith-non-healing parents, and organizations that torture teenagers be exempt from that protection?  I think so.

And what kind of speech would "promote hate?"  And what is hate anyway?  It's a feeling, not an action.  Promoting violence would definitely be something I could see google prohibiting, whether motivated by hate or otherwise.  That's the real risk in unrestrained "hatespeech."  I would never promote violence, though I might make a few rhetorical suggestions about the appropriate punishment for child abusers.

Can garden variety atheist ranting be construed as "hate speech?"

Apparently it can.   Dusty Smith, of the "Cult of Dusty" has posted a chilling video about his experience being deemed hateful by google.  He's stopped advertising other people's crap on his channel and now advertises his own T-Shirts to make some money.  He's an atheist in Mississippi.  He has my sympathy, and I could use a couple of new shirts:

Saturday, June 15, 2013

June 15 Links

Jesus Christ appeared on a dog's butt.   Hallelujah!

Rover finds evidence of neutral pH water
... the kind that could support life.

NASA has mapped all of Mercury

Jerry Coyne's blog updates the Ball State creationism course investigation.  The local paper gives the names of the group investigating the complaint and quotes some letters sent from around the country.  I'm impressed that there is a group investigating the complaint!

Rchard Dawkins' new video on faith-based schools in the U.K.  (For comparison here are some stats on U.S. education: http://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d11/tables/dt11_067.asp -- appproximately 10 percent of America's school children attend private schools, at least 80% of which are religious)





The second video is new to me, but I don't know when he gave this speech. It's "The Case Against Faith"

Wednesday, June 12, 2013

Support these Atheists!

The Freethought Society of East Tennessee hosts a call-in show and they archive the show on youtube.  This week's theme:  sacrifice. The guy on the left really knows his Bible. It's worth viewing!

Tuesday, June 11, 2013

Friday, June 7, 2013

June 8 Link Round-Up



Oldest (yet) primate fossil found in China.  It's as small as a mouse and was probably cute as a button.   Who's my widdle primate fossil?  *tickle tickle*

Frank Lautenberg's legacy includes legislation that enabled Jewish immigration from Russia.

How the human face may look in 100,000 years.  I think they grossly underestimate the time to sense-enhancing implants and grossly overestimate the changes to our eyes, but you can't get into Forbes by keeping the eyes the same!

Essay confirms (my) theory that evangelicals are more interested in the psychological effect of their love-bombing religion than in the theological tenets. 

Piers Morgan interviews schizoid game-playing parent-killer, Joshua Cooke, who credits God with whatever sanity he currently possesses.  (Link is to the part about video games, but by the time you see this there may be a link to the whole interview)

Baptists still divided over predestinationThe Southern Baptist Convention issued a statement because seminaries are turning out hard-line Calivinists who are out of step with the majority.  Hey, if they can't agree within their own denomination, why do they think they should take over the government?  Meanwhile, their numbers are falling.

The FBI will follow hate crimes against more religions, including Hindus and Sikhs.  Atheists were already on the list!

Hick town south of Dayton, Ohio considers creationism in the schools.  The Tea Party approves of the creationism idea.  Big surprise!

Methodist pastors have doubts about creationism.

Video of the Week:  Dan Dennett "You Might be an Atheist if..."




Second Video of the Week: Cenk Uygur (The Young Turks) interviews Todd Stiefel:   "Is Religion a Drug?"